Search smh:

Search in:

Australian to lead UN debate on arms trade

Australia's UN ambassador Peter Woolcott will preside over a new conference that aims to reach agreement on a UN treaty regulating the global arms trade.

The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution by a vote of 133-0 with 17 abstentions to bring the 193 UN member states back to the negotiating table in March 2013 following their failure to reach agreement on a treaty in July.

Hopes of reaching a treaty in July were dashed when the United States said it needed more time to consider the proposed treaty - and Russia and China then also asked for a delay.

The draft treaty would not control the domestic use of weapons in any country but it would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and to regulate arms brokers.

Advertisement

It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if this would violate arms embargoes or if this would promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

Before authorising the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists, organised crime or for corrupt practices.

Many countries, including the United States, control arms exports but there has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated $US60 billion ($A58 billion) global arms trade.

For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of militant groups and organised crime.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful gun-rights lobbying group in the US, has portrayed the treaty as a threat to gun ownership rights enshrined in the US constitution.

The politically controversial issue of gun regulations has re-emerged since a gunman opened fire on December 14 at an primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 children and six educators.

In July, the NRA's CEO Wayne LaPierre told the UN that "the NRA wants no part of any treaty that infringes on the precious right of lawful Americans to keep and bear arms".

He added that "any treaty that includes civilian firearms ownership in its scope will be met with the NRA's greatest force of opposition."

The co-sponsors of Monday's resolution - Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, Kenya and Britain - welcomed adoption of the resolution and urged all countries "to work in a constructive spirit" to make the March 18-28 conference at UN headquarters a success.

In a statement, they said the adoption with more than 100 co-sponsors "was a clear sign that the vast majority of UN member states support a strong, balanced and effective treaty, which would set the highest possible common global standard for the international transfer of conventional arms."

The seven countries expressed support to Australian ambassador Woolcott, the president-designate of the upcoming conference, and said: "We will continue to work hard to ensure that an effective Arms Trade Treaty will be concluded and adopted by consensus at the end of March".